Last of the Belmonts (A Castlevania: Season 1 and 2 Fanfiction)

Chapter 10: Night Falls

The candle burned low in the Belmont Hold, as Trevor sat, wrapped in his cloak, trying to sleep. Sypha stood in the corner, barely awake. 

'Are you okay?' Trevor asked softly. 

'Tired,' she remarked. 

'Sleep, then,' he replied in a gravelly voice. 

'A bit lonely.' He looked at her, raising the corner of his cloak. 

'My dusty old sheet's big enough for two,' he offered. 'And nobody was ever lonely in this house.' She came over, gratefully sitting underneath the cloak with him, huddling next to him. 

'Thank you,' she replied softly. 

'Are Alucard and Alyx asleep?' he whispered. 

'He says he's slept enough. He's still poking around your family's things with a look of faint disgust. Alyx said she'd keep him company.'

'Ah.' 

'It's lonely even when you're standing next to him. It's strange.'

'How so?'

'I'm not sure. He's intelligent, sometimes even witty, in his way. And he's certainly half-human. More than half-human. He's a person in his own right. But it's like he's a cold spot in the room. It's not like your sadness.' 

'I'm not sad.'

'Yes, you are. But I can shout at you or tease you and get a reaction that lets me know that you're still in there. His sadness is like an icy well. It's bottomless. And it swallows up your voice and anything you try and drop into it.'

'Am I really sad?' 

'All the time. You don't even notice it now. It's just how you are. And then, sometimes, you'll tell me that nobody's ever lonely in your house and offer me your stinky blanket.' He chuckled softly. 

'In all honesty, that stink might not be my blanket.' He looked down at her, seeing her fast asleep on his shoulder, and he sighed in contentment. 

Hours later... 

Sypha pulled down a book from the shelf, examining it as Alucard walked into the space of the bookshelves that she occupied. He sidled up to her. 

'You know, for coming from an oral, memory-based culture, you're very good with books.'

'It would have been a poor education if we hadn't been taught to read things to add to our memory stores,' Sypha replied. She sighed, shutting her book. 'But I am coming to the conclusion that my people are idiots. We should have written everything down.' 

'Everything?' he asked thoughtfully. 

'Yes. All the things. Look at this. There's more in this room than a million Speakers could carry across two generations. This is insane. The sheer breadth of information about the castle is staggering.' She pulled another book from the shelf and blew the dust off of it. 

'But how much of it is useful?' Alucard asked, thumbing through a book. 

'Well, I do have questions about Trevor's ancestors. I discovered an entire box of spells about... penises.' 

'You're certain it was one of his ancestors?' Alucard sniped. 'You didn't find it under his childhood bed?' He walked away from her. 

'Stop testing him, Alucard,' Sypha scolded. 

'I am concerned I have thrown my lot in with a demented infant,' Alucard replied. 

'He's my brother, Alucard. That's not very nice,' I shot back, coming around the corner, and leaning against the bookshelf, staring at the half-vampire. 

'I imagine he has similar concerns about you,' Sypha said to Alucard. 

'I am also concerned that you enjoy him too much,' Alucard replied to her. 

'And what is that supposed to mean?' She glared at him. 

'He is unreliable, emotionally damaged, and apparently very distracting to you while you should be focused on the task at hand.' She closed the book with a loud snap. 

'Oh,' she said, placing the book back in the shelf. 'Am I not working hard enough?' she added with a glare, storming past me as Alucard followed behind her. 

'And he's a drunk. And he's self-destructive,' Alucard said, still following her. 'Anybody trying to hold onto him may simply be dragged down with him.'

'You're afraid. You worry that you might have made the wrong choice,' Sypha observed, pulling another book from a shelf. 'So, you're trying to make him prove himself by constantly provoking him. You forget, Alucard. Trevor and Alyx didn't get to finish out their childhood. He is not the man here who may not have grown up.'

'Well, that's ridiculous,' Alucard sniped, grabbing another book. 

'And if we don't get this done,' I said, coming around the corner again, 'then we're all failing. Aren't we?' 

'We can't fail.' There was a pregnant pause before Sypha spoke. 

'Wait. Get me that volume back there, with the red spine.' 

'What have you found?' he asked softly. 

'I'm not sure. The ritual language it's written in has forked a couple of times over the years.'

'Can you read it?' I asked, now standing across from Sypha, thumbing through a book myself. 

'Not without that book.' Alucard brought her the book. 'It's based on Adamic. I recognise the roots. That book there claimed to be written in a language called High Remembrance, which I've heard of. This one has the Adamical roots and some of the structure of High Remembrance. Give.' He passed the book to her. 

'I haven't heard of Adamic,' Alucard said softly. 

'Take a look,' she urged.

'Interesting. I see threads of Chaldaic in it.'

'You're rather well-read yourself,' Sypha acknowledged. 

'I had entirely different books under my childhood bed. My father was a polymath, my mother was a doctor, and I grew up very fast.'

'What does that mean?' 

'I'm being literal,' he replied pointedly. 'I aged very quickly.'

'That may explain something,' she replied with a smile. 

'What?' 

'Perhaps you're just an angry teenager in an adult's body.' I sniggered from across them. 

'Sounds about right.' This was returned with a glare from Alucard to Sypha and I.